Audubon Park Historic District

04/01/2025

Second Annual Gene Norman Preservation Awards Gala
Celebrating the preservation of Harlem's architectural and cultural legacies!

Save Harlem Now! Gene Norman Preservation Awards Gala

12/16/2024

Following tradition, this year’s carol service will include children gathering on the steps of the altar to listen to a special guest read “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” New York Bishop Matthew F. Heyd will read the poem this year.

[Episcopal News Service] The historic Church of the Intercession in Manhattan will host its annual 114th annual Clement Clarke Moore Candlelight Carol Service on Dec. 15 at 4 p.m. Eastern in honor …

09/24/2024

Gilma Avalos visits The Hispanic Society and Library in Manhattan.

08/15/2024

Remembering Gena Rowlands: an iconic scene from Gloria that also captures the Audubon Park neighborhood in the late 1970s, though historic district designation was still 30 years in the future.

People who lived in the neighborhood when Cassavetes was filming Gloria remember the day this scene was shot. Many watched from their windows or the street. Residents at the Grinnell, where many interiors were shot, were part of the Tenants Interim Lease program at the time, on their way to buying the building from the city and turning it into the well-managed co-op it is today. A large part of the money from filming went to building repairs, including the "Gloria roof."

The Riverside Oval Association has transformed the garden in the middle of the Drive into a beautiful oasis for the neighborhood, and the sculpture at the southern end disappeared some time in the early 1990s, but the buildings all still stand as part of both a Audubon Park Historic District, which is designated both by the New York City Landmarks Commission and the National Register of Historic Places.

Short sequence extracted from the film 1980, "Gloria" starring Gena Rowlands and directed by her husband John Cassavetes.

03/13/2024

Community Board 12 Manhattan Stands Against the Demolition of Historic Row Houses at 636-646 West 158th Street: A Call for Improved Practices from NYC Landmark Preservation Commission

New York, NY - Community Board 12 Manhattan (CB12M) expresses its dismay and outrage regarding the imminent demolition of the historic row houses at 636-646 West 158th Street in Washington Heights. Since 2009, CB12M has overwhelmingly voted in favor of their preservation and inclusion within the Audubon Park Historic District. These homes hold historical and architectural value to this neighborhood and tell a significant story in the urbanization and development of northern Manhattan.

We call upon Artifact Real Estate to reconsider its demolition plans for these row houses before it takes this irreversible and hugely regrettable action.

The demolition of these houses not only robs our community of tangible links to its history but also perpetuates the systemic erasure of significant historical, architectural, and cultural sites in low-income and majority communities of color. As the landscape and architectural character of the district continue to be impacted by new development projects that are insensitive to their neighborhood context, we see an urgent need to preserve sites that embody the stories and struggles of generations, serving as a testament to the resilience and heritage of Washington Heights/Inwood.

Over the years, multiple Requests for Evaluation and potential designation submitted to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) with support from residents, organizations like the Historic Districts Council, and elected officials were rejected for dubious reasons. Despite our persistent appeals and advocacy efforts to LPC and local officials, the repeated disregard for the preservation of these homes is deeply troubling and speaks to LPC’s failure to adequately address matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion in its designation of landmark buildings and districts.

As an official City agency committed to amplifying the voices and needs of the Washington Heights/Inwood community, we urge LPC to better engage residents and stakeholders in developing improved practices towards equitable preservation efforts that celebrate the rich collective memories and heritages of all New Yorkers.

For media inquiries or further information, please contact [email protected]

01/06/2023

STREETSCAPES: John Freeman Gill

If you are heading down Upper Broadway in Washington Heights, past the smoke shop and the eyebrow-threading salon and Chipotle, and you look to the right at 156th Street, you’ll see a cloister of imposing cultural buildings largely cut off from the neighborhood.

This is Audubon Terrace, an august assemblage of neo-Italian Renaissance structures, which rose around a rectangular courtyard between 1904 and 1930 on part of the former estate of the naturalist John James Audubon.

Once accused of ignoring the largely Latino residents of Washington Heights, the Hispanic Society will take the lead in a new charm offensive.

12/13/2022

After 75 years of ceremonies in New York’s theater district, the Tony Awards next year will move uptown, holding the annual best-of-Broadway awards ceremony in Washington Heights.

Tony Awards administrators made the surprise announcement Tuesday morning, saying that the next ceremony would take place on June 11 at the United Palace, an ornate theater in northern Manhattan that was constructed as a movie theater and is now used for religious and cultural activities.

The annual ceremony honoring Broadway’s top productions and performers is moving to the New York neighborhood where the musical “In the Heights” was set.

11/25/2022

URRA GREETING CARDS ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE
All profits benefit the Upper Riverside Residents Alliance, a grassroots organization dedicated to protecting, preserving, and celebrating the the architecture, culture, and history of Washington Heights.

The card (4 per package) depicts the much loved 1937 photograph taken by Berenice Abbott of 857 Riverside Drive, a house built by a member of the Underground Railroad and the only surviving structure of a little-known abolitionist community in Washington Heights.

https://www.upperriversideresidentsalliance.org/

11/22/2022

The Grinnell, a stately co-op in upper Manhattan's Audubon Park, might just be the city’s best-kept secret — for now.

Replete with spacious homes, a strong sense of community and maintenance fees that are considerably less than in comparable buildings, the property stands in a sleepy corner of Washington Heights, at 800 Riverside Drive. It also rarely has openings — but house hunters and otherwise property-curious locals now have their best chance in years to become members of this exclusive, and under-the-radar, club.

In this 83-unit structure, where residents typically spend decades, there are now an unprecedented four apartments for sale. When they trade hands, they’ll mark the first sales at the Grinnell since 2020, according to StreetEasy, when only two units sold. In 2019, just three units found new owners.

Among the city’s best-kept secrets, the Grinnell — a stately structure in Washington Heights — now has four units seeking new generations of owners.

12/22/2021

For the fifteenth consecutive year, the Riverside Oval Association (ROA) has produced a calendar featuring “Views of the Heights,” including fourteen historic images, with seven contemporary insets showing “how it looks now.”

For the fifteenth consecutive year, the Riverside Oval Association (ROA) has produced a calendar featuring “Views of the Heights,” including fourteen historic images, with seven contemp…

12/22/2021

Over the last year, the Upper Riverside Residents Alliance (URRA)—initially formed to prevent demolition of 857 Riverside Drive—has expanded its mission to “protecting, preserving and celebrating the architecture, culture and history of Riverside Drive and its adjacent areas in Northern Manhattan.”

A recipient of grassroots preservation award from the Historic Districts Council, the organization focused most of its attention in 2021 on extending the current Audubon Park Historic District to encompass buildings on both sides of Riverside Drive between 158th and 162nd Streets, row houses on West 158th Street, and two apartment buildings facing Riverside Drive West. It is now looking to a new set of initiatives that it will announce in early 2022

Over the last year, the Upper Riverside Residents Alliance (URRA)—initially formed to prevent demolition of 857 Riverside Drive—has expanded its mission to “protecting, preserving and celebra…